Travel writer and former Portlander Frank Bures has published an essay attacking that half-forgotten economic development shibboleth, the "creative class." The term was shorthand for theories of the pop economist Richard Florida, whose books espoused the importance of the MacBook-in-the-coffee shop set to society's greater well-being.

"Today," Bures writes, "Cre­ative Class doc­trine has become so deeply engrained in the cul­ture that few question it."

Why, withÂ­out any solid eviÂ­dence, did a whole genÂ­erÂ­aÂ­tion of polÂ­icy makÂ­ers swalÂ­low the creÂ­ative Kool-Aid so enthuÂ­siÂ­asÂ­tiÂ­cally? One reaÂ­son is that when Floridaâs first book came out, few experts bothÂ­ered debunkÂ­ing it, because it didnât seem worth debunkÂ­ing. âIn the acaÂ­dÂ­eÂ­mic and urban planÂ­ning world,â says [Florida critic Jamie] Peck, âpeoÂ­ple are slightly embarÂ­rassed about the Florida stuff.â Most econÂ­oÂ­mists and pubÂ­lic polÂ­icy scholÂ­ars just didnât take it seriously.

Bures' essay amusingly relates some experiences he and his wife had after moving from Portland to another "creative" city, Madison, Wisconsin:

For a time, my wife had a soulÂ­less job with a boss who sat behind her, starÂ­ing at the back of her head. I found work in a dusty tomb of a bookÂ­store, doing data entry with coworkÂ­ers who comÂ­plained about their neuÂ­roÂ­logÂ­iÂ­cal disÂ­orÂ­ders, or who told me about the magÂ­iÂ­cal creaÂ­tures they saw on their way home, and who kept webÂ­sites depictÂ­ing themÂ­selves as minotaurs.Iâm not sure what exactly I expected, but within a year or two it was clear that someÂ­thing wasnât right. If MadiÂ­son was such a CreÂ­ative Class hotbed overÂ­flowÂ­ing with indeÂ­penÂ­dent, post-industrial workÂ­ers like myself, we should have fit in. Yet our presÂ­ence didnât seem to matÂ­ter to anyÂ­one, creÂ­atively or othÂ­erÂ­wise. And anyÂ­way, Madisonâs econÂ­omy was humÂ­ming along with unemÂ­ployÂ­ment around four perÂ­cent, while back in fun, creÂ­ative PortÂ­land, it was more than twice that, at eight and a half perÂ­cent. This was not how the world accordÂ­ing to Florida was supÂ­posed to work.